Nike Uses Heat Maps To Develop New Flyknit Sports Bra

Nike is repurposing the Flyknit material it uses for sneakers into a sports bra — and it’s using a very technical process involving heat maps and digital body scans to do it.

Nike engineers and designers have put in more than 600 hours of biometric testing to determine how best to knit together materials for use in its Flyknit products. That has involved capturing athlete motion and creating atlas maps, or digital body scans, to evaluate areas of high temperature, sweat, cooling and movement to maximize cooling, breathability and support.

This is the first time, however, that the rigorous Flyknit testing has been applied to a sports bra.

Nike Flyknit, which debuted at the 2012 London Olympic games, is formed with a “digitally engineered knitting process,” according to NIke. The fabric is pieced together to create a featherweight upper for sneakers, which has skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years.

The Flyknit Bra is similarly constructed with a ultra-soft nylon-spandex yarn that form fits to the body using two single-layer panels. It’s far simpler than other Nike bras that can have up to 40 different parts and more than 20 seams.

The engineering process enabled designers to combine encapsulation (separate cups for each breast) with compression (holding breasts close to the body), without the need for additional parts, such as wires, pads, stabilizers and elastics.

The result is a steep reduction in materials and seams, which Nike says makes it 30 percent lighter than any other bra in its line.

Nicole Rendone, Nike’s senior bra innovation designer, said support and breathability were essential in developing the bra.

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About Jen Booton

Jen is a senior writer at SportTechie covering the many ways technology is disrupting sports. On any given day she may cover a wide variety of stories ranging from the newest virtual reality training tools for the NFL, the rise of eSports leagues and the infiltration of drones in extreme sports. Prior to joining SportTechie, Jen was a technology reporter at MarketWatch, where she covered major Silicon Valley companies, such as Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook.
Jen is a licensed skydiver who jumps out of planes, helicopters and hot air balloons for fun in her spare time. She’s a former NCAA cross country athlete and currently lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.
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